Creating a Subslot Using a Metaslot

Note: Before you create and use metaclasses and metaslots, you should be confident with the basic Protégé interface and be comfortable designing a project, and creating and modifying classes, slots, forms and instances.

Once you have added one or more metaslots to your project, you can select the metaslot you want to use to create a subslot. When you create a subslot using a non-standard metaslot, the slot is given the attributes specified by the selected metaslot. 

You can only select the metaslot for a subslot at the time of creation. If you create a top-level slot, you must first create the slot, and then change its metaslot. If you wish to use the same metaslot for all or most of the slots you create, you can set that metaslot as the default metaslot.

To create a subslot using a non-standard metaslot:

  1. In the Slots Tab, find the slot that you want as the superslot of the new slot. 
  2. Click the right mouse button and select "Create subslot using slot metaclass...
  3. A dialog box displays the slot metaclasses.
  4. Select the metaslot that has the properties that you want and click OK. 
    The new slot will be added under the highlighted slot. It will have the Slot Form determined by the selected metaslot. The name of the metaslot you used is displayed at the top of the Slot Form, immediately after the name of the slot. The Slot Form may include additional widgets that are not part of :STANDARD-SLOT.
  5. Use the Slot Form to name the slot, choose its value type, and set its other properties. 

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